1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of computer graphics and, more particularly, to a flexible system architecture for generating video signals in a graphics environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer system may be used to drive one or more display devices (such as monitors or projectors). The computer system may provide analog or digital video signals to drive the display devices. The computer system may include a graphics system for the rendering and display of 2D graphics and/or 3D graphics. The graphics system may supply the video signals which drive the display devices. In addition, the computer system may include a system unit, and input devices such as a keyboard, mouse, etc.
In general, prior art graphics systems do not have a scalable video architecture, i.e. they are not able to flexibly allocate hardware resources in proportion to the number of video signals to be generated and the respective pixel bandwidths of the video signals. Thus, graphics consumers are often forced to use a more powerful, and thus, more expensive graphics system than would be optimal for a given graphics scenario. Thus, there exists a need for a graphics system which can flexibly allocate hardware resources to video signals in proportion to their respective pixel bandwidths.
Furthermore, prior art graphics systems typically do not provide a mechanism enabling multiple hardware devices (e.g. graphics boards) to collaborate in generating one or more video signals. Thus, graphics consumers may be forced into the inefficient mode of using one hardware device (e.g. one graphics board) per video signal. In this case, some or all of the graphics boards may operate at significantly less than maximum capacity. Therefore, there exists a need for a graphics system and methodology which would enable multiple hardware devices to collaborate in the generation of one or more video signals.